The Martian

First, the narrator for the audiobook version was fantastic. He made material that would have probably driven me bonkers in print not only bearable but enjoyable.

The Martian is about what happens to a man who is stranded on Mars after the rest of his crewmates abort their mission, leaving him behind under the completely logical presumption that he was dead. I was expecting gritty and depressing and instead was given light-hearted and interesting. The light-hearted part sometimes ventured too far into the goofy and the interesting sometimes ventured too far into watching-someone-else-do-math-problems territory, but as a whole it managed to keep me listening long after my car rides had already ended despite my biases against first-person narration of snarky males.

I would also like to note that Andy Weir avoids the temptation to continue the story beyond the point where it is strictly necessary. No spoilers, but there isn't an epilogue. It reminds me of the way Neal Stephenson ends his books: build-up -> climax -> "yall can see where this is going, glad you enjoyed the book, see ya next time".